Ferrari plans to halt factory production and cut jobs as a result of reduced engine orders from its sister company, Maserati. Maserati received about 4,500 engines from Ferrari in 2009, a far cry from the 9,000 delivered in 2008.

It is reported that factory workers staged a four-hour walk-out because Ferrari plans on eliminating 120 office positions and 150 factory jobs in exchange for the last payment of year 2009 bonus, which was due this past April. A total of around 3,000 people are on the company payroll.

"Ferrari has proposed to pay the bonuses if we accept the job cuts," said Giordano Fiorani, a union official representing workers. "We are ready to discuss layoffs and reorganization, as there is a real cut in production, but we don't understand their rigidity," he added.

Fiorani told Bloomberg that Ferrari plans to lay off about 600 workers for a week. Ferrari spokesperson Stefano Lai confirmed that plans were afoot to lower the headcount but did not mention any figures.

In addition, Fiorani claimed that 2010 production targets were being slashed from 20,000 to 11,000 units. Lai refuted the claim and explained that the company had never planned on producing 20,000 cars this year and will maintain production at about 6,000 vehicles, similar to last year's output. In addition, some jobs would be outsourced and some employees would be offered early retirement.

Ferrari sold 6,294 cars in 2009 while its first-quarter trading profit slid 28% to US$49.5 million.

I have been a car fanatic since 1989, when my father was changing our family car then to a Toyota Corolla 1.6 GL fitted with a Twin Cam 16 valve engine that was carburetor-fed, a big deal back in those days. The automobile technology and industry fascinates me and I hope to broadcast these interesting developments to everyone out there through this blog.